Behind the scenes

 I am new to East Lothian Museums service; I have been working here for a week on a four week work placement for my Museum Studies course at Durham University. Primarily I am working with the collections officer, working on the database, however I have had the chance to work with many member of staff on different projects. I may spell things a bit differently as I am from the United States, specifically Kansas City, Missouri. For my blog I thought I would look at the East Lothian Museums service and their connection with the East Lothian communities. I’ve chosen this photograph to represent the history of the community in Haddington through small businesses!

 The East Lothian Museums service has been a great place to do my work placement. Being a smaller, council run museums service there are unique challenges that were not discussed in my classes. They also have strong connections to the community. Their collections and museums reflect the history and life of the East Lothian area they serve. My second day on my placement I was lucky enough to have the chance to go with the education officer and collections officer to St. Andrews for a meeting on ‘Revisiting Collections’. This program (there is one of those pesky words: ‘programme’ in the UK, ‘program’ in the US) is about engaging with communities through objects often using focus groups to gather reactions and insight from groups in those communities. The East Lothian Museums Service has been working on developing a display using these focus group interactions. In class we often discuss how museums are meant to be a resource for the community and to help preserve and share culture heritage, so it was exciting to see this being put into practice in a more active way. I think that getting groups and communities more involved with collections helps people realize what a great resource they have in their community. It also seems to make museums less intimidating and more approachable (much like these blogs). I know that part of my interest in museums stems from elementary school where I was allowed to explore local museums and even participate in events and ‘behind the scenes’ programs.

As a student, ‘Revisiting Collections’ along with digitizing databases and writing blogs are all excellent, practical examples for me of how museums can reach out to their communities and make the most of the services they offer. Often in classes we discuss more abstract ideas like ‘what is a museum’, or learn about museum policies, but it is really valuable for me to have a chance to see and be a part of how museums really work to achieve their ideals.

 I’ve jumped blogs this week to be a ‘guest blogger’ – not a very attractive title, I know. This blog is being simultaneously posted on both this and Museums Galleries Scotland’s blog.

Recently, we were lucky enough to have one of our objects chosen to be part of the initial collection on the BBC’s History of World site. Our Bronze Age Beaker is amongst the earliest version of its kind in Britain still intact. You’ll probably have heard about the BBC’s project in one way or another, it’s basically about creating an online database of objects which represent…‘The History of the World’ (cue dramatic music).

Objects are now being uploaded from museums and individuals. Even Neil Oliver is getting involved by choosing his personal object (I know, it’s like he’s never off the TV). So I tried uploading another object to see how it would work.

I registered as a user on the website which was really simple. (Hint – make your username your museum name!)  I instantly received an email which meant I could register an object. I chose a Mak’Merry bowl because I knew a bit about it already and thought it had an interesting story. I was asked for some details which I already had on our collections database – size, colour, material, age of object and so on. The BBC have made it really simple – lots of tick boxes and drop-down lists. I also had to write 150 words on the ‘story of the object’. You might find some of it a bit too simple for museum standards, for example when choosing what size it is you might be debating between “Tiny – it fits in my hand” or “Medium – I can put my arms around it”. (I suppose it depends on the size of your body parts). From my education point of view, it’s a perfect way of getting the general public thinking about how to categorise their personal objects as part of history.

What are the benefits for you of putting an object up online? We use a lot of different sites to promote our collections – Scran, Flickr, Facebook, YouTube, Blog, plus our own website. If you don’t or can’t use any of these, the BBC is a really easy way of sharing your collections instantly, without worrying about the issues of copyright and managing such a site. As an experiment I did a Google search for ‘Mak’Merry bowl’, the BBC page came up third, after Flickr and our own online exhibition about pottery. Scran came up 5^th. I imagine most people around the world would recognise and trust the BBC brand meaning they are instantly more likely to look at this search result. As an added bonus, you can also put links to your own website beside your object so that interested parties can link directly back to you. So go on, you’ll be bowl-ed over by how easy it is!!

I thought it was time for an update on our social networking side of things. I’ve been trying to improve two of our profiles over the past few months - our profile on Facebook and,  more close to home, on East Lothian Buzz.

As of this moment, we have 54 fans on Facebook. We do have a few regular contributors (Kate, mainly) who ‘like’ or comment on things. Facebook tells you when you were most popular - so what makes our friends comment or view? Pictures of random things!! Our most commented upon and viewed post is one on 5th January 2010 of this photograph of Museum HQ Office carpark under snow!

Our second most? You’ll need to look on our profile now to check out the other picture that has been creating quite a flutter.

East Lothian Buzz is a social networking site supported by the Council - local things for local people and all that. It’s a really good way of finding out about what’s going on nearby, there are always loads of events being posted. You can also reach East Coast FM through the site. It’s more friendly than the bigger sites as some one always replies when you post a question, or will often just get in touch without prompting.

Well, that’s where we’re at just at the moment. Please share with us if you’ve seen other museums on Facebook that you particularly like - always looking to borrow other people’s good ideas!

So, advocacy and museums. Something we hear about from the moment we step over the hallowed thresholds of Museums Studies courses. Museums people tend to be in their jobs because they love what they do and will willingly go on (often at some length) about it if given the merest suggestion of interest. What we aren’t always wonderful at it telling the right people the right things in the right way at the right moment. Not necessarily the easiest job in the world, so I was pleased to see that the Museums Association is running a campaign to promote advocacy skills in museums at the moment called ‘love museums’. Good title and nice logo too. Unfortunately there is only one training event in Scotland and I can’t go (happy to send someone else… don’t all shout at once) however, this is a timely piece of work, especially for us here in East Lothian where cultural matters are high up the agenda - how do we make our point whilst we have such a great opportunity to do so, and crucially how do we get to stay up the agenda once the current high levels of interest wane (answers on a postcard…) We have lots of ideas and have been trying some of them out, but always need fresh thoughts if anyone out there has any thoughts…